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POKEMON EARNS PAPAL BLESSING

Autore: Devlin Barrett
Pubblicato sul New York Post

Worried parents may think the Pokémon kiddie-card craze is the work
of the devil, but the pope has reportedly decided the game is good for children.
The Vatican gave its blessing to the game just as its popularity is soaring
in Italy, where "Pokémon: The First Movie" opens this week,
the Times of London reported yesterday.

The trading-card and computer game is "full of inventive imagination,"
said Sat2000, a satellite TV station run by the Vatican.

The game did not have "any harmful moral side effects" and was
based on "ties of intense friendship," the station said.

Pokémon pushes its pint-sized players to think creatively to conquer
challenges without violence, said the station, which is run by the Italian
Bishops' Conference.

Sat2000 said the game told simple stories which allowed children "to
enter directly into the story" through role-playing adventures.

Italian children have shown almost a religious devotion to Pikachu and
Co., spending loads of lire to snap up every available Pokémon card
and sticker.But officials fear the Mafia will strong-arm its way into the
craze, flooding the streets with counterfeit cards because the real ones
are now almost impossible to find in stores.

Italian children already have bought 50 million packets of the cards in
just over a month. The same hysteria earlier this year left American parents
and educators wondering if the game was a sinful temptation. Some parents
complained their children were breaking their piggy banks to buy cards and
that ugly schoolyard fights were sparked over them. Italian opinion-makers
have generally endorsed the game.

The Catholic Church's public blessing of Pokémon seems part of an
effort by ailing Pope John Paul II to reach out to young people. The 79-year-old
pontiff also is set to host a pop concert next month featuring Lou Reed
and the Eurythmics, and a World Youth Festival during the summer.